10 things you need to know today

Business Insider

Jan. 9, 2017, 06:57 AM

Here is what you need to know.

Theresa May is aiming for a "hard Brexit."In a Sky News interview on Sunday, the UK prime minister said the Brexit would be about "getting the right relationship" with the European Union and "not about keeping bits of membership." The British pound is at a three-month low, down 0.9% at 1.2173 versus the dollar.

Beppe Grillo is changing his tune in Italy. The leader of Italy's populist Five Star movement wants to end its eurosceptic alliance with Britain's UKIP party and enter into a pro-European Union alliance, AFP says.

China spent about $72 billion defending the yuan in December. While China's foreign-exchange reserves fell by about $41 billion to $3.01 trillion, the amount of net capital outflows, and subsequent intervention from the People's Bank of China, was nearly twice as much, Wei Li, a China and Asia economist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia, wrote in a note to clients.

Goldman Sachs says there are 3 big risks for 2017. Goldman Sachs chief economist Jan Hatzius is optimistic for 2017 but said in a speech in London on Monday that trade protectionism, European politics, and China were the three risks to his outlook.

McDonald's unloads its business in China. The fast-food giant sold 20-year rights to the majority of its business in Hong Kong and China to Citic and Carlyle Group for up to $2.1 billion, Reuters reports.

Stock markets around the world trade mixed. China's Shanghai Composite (+0.5%) led in Asia, and France's CAC (-0.8%) lags in Europe. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is on track to open slightly lower near 19,945.